ferring, of course, the sale at one place or the other, as the state of exchange may render most for the interest of the United States, if events of war do not overrule this consideration.

If this cannot be done, it will be preferred, if practicable, that the instalment of one million of principal should be postponed by a new loan, as on a former occasion; in which case, the interest only will be to be provided for by sale of so much stock as may be necessary.

On this, as on all other occasions, I confide in your judgment and tried zeal for the interest of the United States. I am sure I rest on a good foundation to the utmost extent of possibility. With great consideration and esteem,

I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your obd't serv't.

P. S. It is possible our Minister, Mr. Pinckney, may have left London, temporarily, for Madrid. In that case, his secretary will become possessed of my letter and directions to him, and will receive your communication.

Description of the stock mentioned in the foregoing letter,

viz.:

One hundred certificates of 6 per cent. stock, No. 2911 to 3010, both numbers inclusive, dated the 31st January, 1795, and of five thousand dollars each, issued in the names of Wilhelm and Jan Willink, and Nicholas and Jacob Van Staphorst and Hubbard, agents for the United States at Amsterdam.

HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON.

PHILADELPHIA, January 26th, 1795.

SIR:

Mr. Wolcott has just informed me that the Secretary of State had called upon him as by your direction, to confer on the

subject of a person to be appointed comptroller, in the event of his appointment as Secretary of the Treasury; and intimated that you had concluded to take some gentleman from the south; that Mr. Habersham (brother of the collector of Savanah) was more particularly in your eye, and that if he or I had any different view of the subject, it was your wish that it might be speedily communicated, as you were desirous of coming to a conclusion.

This I accordingly feel it my duty to do.

It is of the greatest importance to the proper conducting the business of the Treasury Department that the comptroller should be a man of the following discription: of strong sense, of clear discernment, sound judgment, indefatigable industry, firmness and prompt decision of temper; possessing a comprehensive knowledge of accounts, and of course good principles.

As well from the nature of the office as from the particular situation of the department, as it will stand at the moment of my resignation, it is of peculiar consequence that there should be no mistake in the selection of the proper character for comptroller. It will be easy for the department to run into disorder if such a mistake should happen.

From all the light I have been able to obtain on the subject, though it results in a favorable impression of Mr. Habersham generally, yet it leaves a considerable doubt on my mind that he would be an eligible appointment as comptroller of the Treasury. I cannot, therefore, add my opinion to the rest of the opinions which may favor it.

There is one gentleman south, whom I have before mentioned, of whose fitness in every respect, from trial of him in different public situations, it appears to me impossible to entertain a doubt I mean Colonel Edward Carrington. I will pledge my reputation to the President for his proving, if appointed, an excellent comptroller, and a valuable acquisition to the department.

I have fully reflected on the objection which, from the distributive geographical rule, is supposed to be against himand I beg leave to submit, as my opinion, that it ought not to be conclusive. This rule is doubtless a good one; but if carried so far as to hazard the appointment of unqualified persons to offices

of material importance to the general administration of the gov ernment, it will become a bad one, sacrificing primary to secondary considerations.

I have offered my opinion with the less reserve, because I ought to be explicit, in a case not only of much moment to the public service, but where the arrangements which may be made may, naturally from situation, be presumed to have had the concurrence of my opinion, and where, therefore, my reputation is more particularly concerned.

With perfect respect, &c.

HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON.

January 31, 1795.

SIR:

I have the honor to send you the copy of a letter of the 27th instant, from the collector of Philadelphia; of another letter of the 30th ultimo, from that officer, to the attorney of the district of Pennsylvania, and of a deposition of Charles Homes, taken before Judge Peters.

These documents establish an improper attempt of Mr. Petri, the French Consul, to evade a law of the United States, and allow a suspicion of the privity of a higher official character. It is impossible to avoid the reflection that there is too much connection between the affair of the powder and the unlawful equipment of the privateer Les Jumeaux. I fear that agents of France have not ceased to countenance proceedings which not only contravene our neutrality, but may prove a source of very serious expense to the United States.

With perfect respect, I have the honor to be, &c.

SIR:

HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Jan. 31, 1795.

Previous to the leaving my present office, there are a few points which I think it my duty to bring under the consideration of the President.

The first regards the present state and arrangement of the mint.

It is certain that this establishment is capable of producing very important benefits to the community. At this moment, when an unusually large and sudden exportation of silver has produced a very inconvenient scarcity of that species of money, the full activity of the mint would be of primary utility. Large quantities of silver lie in the banks and other places in ingots, which, if turned into coin, would be of the greatest advantage to trade, and to all pecuniary operations public and private.

Hitherto the mint has comparatively done nothing. This is matter both of surprise and complaint with all that part of the community whose dissatisfactions are the less known, because they are not lightly promulgated. The institution itself, by not fulfilling the public expectation, grows into discredit, and those who have had the principal agency in its establishment are wounded by a growing disrepute, which is attributable truly to an insufficient execution. The President probably knows better than I do, what have been the causes of the deficiency. They may afford a justification; but, uninformed as I am, I cannot help thinking that with due exertion the business of the mint might have been far more matured, and its present powers of action far greater than they are. And I am led to fear that as long as it continues under its present management the public expectation will be disappointed. The director, though a most respectable and excellent man, can hardly be expected on several accounts to give that close and undivided attention to it, which in its first stages is indispensable.

There is another point in relation to the same subject, on

which I should have been silent as long as I could have been supposed to have any personal motive to influence my opinion. But now that this is at an end, I yield without hesitation to my convictions of the public interest, in presenting with the greatest deference those convictions to the consideration of the President. They amount to this, that the mint establishment will be most advantageously for the service of the United States placed under the superintendence of the department of the Treasury.

It is obvious that that establishment forms a most material link in the money system of the country. This system, as it regards public operations, is in the management of the department of the Treasury. It follows, that in the theory of the case, there is an intimate relation between this department and that establishment.

The law constituting the mint, also establishes some relations between them.

The fifth section refers to the judgment of the Secretary of the Treasury, the competency of the sureties to be given by the officers of the mint.

The fourteenth section, providing for the exchange of the bullion for money, with the deduction of one-half per cent., towards defraying the expenses of the mint, makes it the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to furnish the mint from time to time, whenever the state of the Treasury will admit of it, with such sums as may be necessary for effecting those exchanges. To engage the Secretary to dispossess the Treasury with confidence of large sums for such exchanges, it is necessary that he should be very certain of their regular and punctual return. The assurance of this would be not a little strengthened by that intimate knowledge of situation which would result from the duty of superintending. The efficient operation of this provision is of no small consequence to the economy of the establishment. Hitherto its situation has been such as to preclude absolutely the effect of it.

Moreover, the Secretary of the Treasury, called daily and habitually, to observe the progress of money transactions, awake to every thing which can affect them well or ill, because the credit